A distraction called Palin

Palin is a distraction And this election won't be won by comparing Biden to Palin; it won't be won by killer lines against Palin's qualifications. The best Obama can make use of is during the Republican Convention, and they can run ads about Romney and Huckabee and suchlike to demonstrate how McCain has gone on and selected a nonentity, someone who did not even campaign nationally, in the place of other candidates who had had the support of the Party. This is about the maximum mileage of the Palin story - unless of course there is real corruption, in which case McCain and the ticket are toast in any event.
No. The significance of the Palin selection is to be found elsewhere. It is that, first, the experience issue is not gone, forever, and done with. Not that Obama's experience is in any way comparable to Palin's, but that McCain has already defanged his own campaign of its most serious legitimate charge. And second, that, simply, this is a desperate attempt at shoring up a candidacy that is floundering; it is a gimmick; it is a joke and a hoax upon the nation. McCain chose her because he has no intention of winning - or, rather, no hope. It is already a concession speech: after all, if he is a true patriot, he can't be serious in wanting her his own heartbeat away from the Presidency. This is yet another frat-boy prank, another injection of humour into the campaign; this is the Paris Hilton ad taken to its logical extension.
As for the supporters of Hillary: well, I am not a woman, but if I were, I'd be, at a minimum, mildly insulted. Why? *Because this is how McCain thinks of Hillary.* To him, Hillary is no better than a one-term two-year Governor of a small state: all Hillary supporters want is not Hillary and her experience (in their minds) and her credentials; it is her reproductive organs - and if Hillary then some other woman, any other woman.
Whatever one might say about Mrs. Clinton, she is a formidable politician; she was the presumptive nominee for a long time, and came within several percentage points of being the nominee. She has travelled the country, campaigned long (too long) and hard (too hard); she's the one who got the 18 million cracks in the ceiling. And now McCain thinks that any woman anywhere in the country could claim the allegiance of these 18 million, just by virtue of being women? Nah, it does not work that way. And that should be the story to press forward.